Bannister's cruising report 2011 (West Honshu~Hokkaido)

Many thanx for the info Hanny and Hendrik-Jan !!

Ports on the west coast of Honshu

This is a more rugged coast with less industry. the coast is more exposed for the weather. Japanese sailors when making a circumnavigation around Honshu prefer to sail this coast in May and June when strong westerly’s hardly appear, consequence is a lot of motoring. We sailed in April as we wanted to leave Hokkaido end of may. We thought it was not a bad period to do, You have to be aware which ports are suitable for strong westerly winds and swell and keep an eye on the weather forecast, but we also had beautiful sailing going up north. For this part we used notes from Isao Kakihari from Tannowa marina, who circumnavigated Honshu a couple of years before. Although we have not visited all the harbours we will mention them.

Odo Marina, Fukuoka

It’s not always Sushi and Shine for an overseas visiting yacht here in Japan. This following report was written by the crew of sy Safina about their stay at  ODO MARINA in Fukuoka.

Pros:

The haul-out is very secure,

The yard employees are in general skillful and meticulous,

The marina is strategically located close to supermarket, hardware store, chandlery, subway station, restaurant, coin laundry, etc

Shower and toilet.

Cons:

Communication: don’t return E-mail,

Communication in general: don’t speak comprehensive English,

Reception: No help from the marina on arrival,

Yard: they apply paint with brush and they don’t know how to brush paint,

No electricity and water on pontoon,

Pontoon charges applied even on the hard on top of hard stay charges,

Pay in advance policy,

Yard: they didn’t know how to change a cutlass bearing,

They aren’t very friendly.

Too bad sy Safina doesn't keep up a Blog, so we can’t read more about their adventures in Japan.

Rules.....

Insurance.

When entering Japan, a foreign yacht = vessel is required  to have an "insurance" .

Details Re the insurance are asked for by the Japan Coast Guard Initial Paper Work (PW).

Once in Japan...the JCG never will ask for "proof ".

So ...read between the lines.....it's up to you what to write down @ PW if you don't have insurance.

In addition, it is very easy and cheap to take out a third party insurance once in Japan...for a 40 foot boat it is about 10.000 yen for a year. A good thing to have with all the outstanding fishing nets etc.

In a way it is "funny" as Japanese yachts are NOT required by Law to have an insurance....

Boat License.

As a rule in Japan, 1 person on board a boat should have a Boat License.

This doesn't count for a foreign vessel.

As long as you travel on your foreign flagged vessel: No Need to Have.

Funny again is...if you do have an overseas Boat License...it is NOT valid to navigate on a Japanese vessel...

Hence you have to study and sit the Japan Boat License test.( email me if you like details).

A~Z about Bmobile

Jenny on board of sy Bosun Bird wrote the following report:

According to bmobile's website www.bmobile.ne.jp you can buy a U300 SIM card for 1 month (2980 yen), 6 months (14,900 yen) and 12 months (29,800 yen).  In shops (Kagoshima, Nagasaki and Fukuoka) I never saw a card for one month – however it did look as though you could buy a one month card through their website.  I bought my U300 SIM card from Odobashi Camera in Fukuoka and paid 15,900 yen for an 8 month card.

I activated my card through the Helpdesk phone

3 at a time

sy Bannister, sy Kauana and sy Sunstone.
 3 of the 2011 class, in port NW Honshu.

sy JIJI report 2011. From Hong Kong to Akita

Sy JIJI sailed from Hong Kong to Akita (NW Honshu) in May & June 2011.

Jo wrote:

Below are, briefly, now some of my experiences and port info for your blog:

"jiji sailed from hong kong to akita in the month of may, 2011, stopping at kaohsiung (taiwan), okinawa, fukuoka, fukui (planned), and made one unplanned stop at ikitsuki ko on ikitsuki island, nagasaki prefecture because of engine failure. the trip took one more one month - may 1 to june 7. we choose the month of may after consulting the april, may and june u.s. gov't pilot charts for the east asia region, plus reading a lot of typhoon related information. we thought the month of may would minimize the chances of running into typhoons. however, as it turns out, we were quite wrong. we had to take evasive actions for the first two typhoons of the season, both of which came our way -- we were one day ahead of the eye of the typhoon going into naha ko in okinawa honto, which got a direct hit. then, when we were in fukuoka, the second typhoon, a super typhoon, passed by. even though this one went to the east side of honshu, there were strong winds in the sea of japan,

sy BANNISTER's report 2010

Moorings and Anchorages in Japan and Korea
These Notes are originally set up in 2008/2009 by Olivier and Pascaline from French sailing yacht Neos, added in 2010 by Hendrik-Jan and Hanny from Dutch sailing yacht Bannister with help from several Japanese and foreign cruising friends, of whom we specially like to mention Jaap and Marijke from Dutch sailing yacht Alishan and Murano and Kazumi from Japanese sailing yacht Possible Dreams
Some notes are in French, but for sure you will manage to extract the useful information.
General :
Tourist information: at the ferry terminals you will find a tourist office or a stand with brochures and maps, and sometimes wireless internet.
ATM’s from post offices take foreign cards but recently also the ATM’s from the Seven Eleven convenience stores, very handy when it’s one of those public holidays, or a Sunday..
Fuel, In almost every harbours you can get diesel. When there is a fuel station close by at the harbour, point at your boat and ask for diesel and they will come with a little truck, ask in advance the price as it can differ quite a bit. If there is a customs office in the harbour you can try to get a ticket to get diesel cheaper but often it is a hassle.
Weather information, Navtex is working perfect in Japan, it gives, all the gunnery and other exercises, positions and forecast